MONROE, La. – Travis Munnings led four Warhawks in double figures with a game-high 26 points to lead ULM to a 90-63 exhibition win over NCAA Division II Henderson State Thursday night (Nov. 1) in Fant-Ewing Coliseum. Munnings hit 10-of-16 shots from the floor to pace a balanced scoring attack.
 
There were two ties and 10 lead changes in a highly competitive first half. Henderson State, which led for nearly nine minutes in the first half, put together a 10-3 run and built a 27-21 lead on a jumper from Graham Chenault with 7:58 to play in the opening half.
 
ULM closed out the first half with a 14-2 spurt and took a 43-33 lead into the locker room at halftime. The Warhawks connected on five of their last seven field-goal attempts while the Reddies went 1-for-11 over the final five minutes of the opening half.
 
ULM shot 56 percent (14-of-25) from the field in the first half, including 5-of-9 from 3-point range. Munnings netted 15 first-half points.
 
"It was a good exhibition game for us because Henderson State challenged us early, and we had to compete and kind of figure things out along the way," ULM head basketball coach Keith Richard said. "I liked the way our team responded late in the first half.
 
"Henderson State is going to have a nice (NCAA) Division II team this year. That team is well coached by Jimmy Elgas. His team really wore us down with its half-court offense in the first half. So we had to make some adjustments, and that's what exhibition games are for. We moved our defense out and tried to make it more difficult for them to run their offense. We forced some turnovers. We forced some missed shots, grabbed some rebounds and got out and ran a little. When we did get out in transition, you can see that we've got some speed."
 
The Warhawks broke the game open in the second half, outscoring Henderson State, 47-30. A layup by Andre Washington gave ULM its largest lead at 30, 90-60, with 23 seconds remaining.
 
Three other Warhawks joined Munnings in double figures, including Daishon Smith who tossed in 15 points and collected a team-high seven rebounds. ULM also got 14 points from Michael Ertel and 11 from Jontray Harris. Nine different players scored for the Warhawks.
 
"Travis Munnings played like a senior, first-team all-conference player," Richard said. "He plays very hard and does a little bit of everything. Travis got some buckets inside the 3-point line for us when we really needed a lift. During one stretch in the second half, we were getting open 3s, but the shots weren't going down. During a timeout, I said let's get points at the rim in these next three or four possessions. And Travis delivered: bam, bam, bam."
 
"Daishon Smith is a good player. He's been hampered a little this week by a foot injury. His conditioning is a little off kilter because he only practiced about half this week. But you can see he's a scorer with great quickness. Daishon is going to be a nice addition to our lineup this year."
 
Chris Parker led Henderson State with 14 points, with 10 of those coming in the first half, while Raekwon Rogers contributed 12 points off the bench.
 
For the game, ULM hit 54 percent (31-of-57) of its field-goal attempts, including 38 percent (10-of-26) from behind the 3-point arc, and outrebounded the Reddies, 39-37. The Warhawks also outscored Henderson State from the free-throw line, 18-9.
 
"Despite winning the rebound margin, that's one area that remains a concern," Richard said. "We're going to have to improve in that area. We're going to have to be a lot more aggressive with our blockouts. We gave up two free-throw blockouts in the first half. We're also going to have to do a better job of five-man rebounding. Our guards will have to come off the perimeter to help out on the defensive glass. It's no secret: we don't have a lot of beef in there, especially since we lost those two guys to start the year (Sam Alabakis elected not to return for his senior year, opting instead to pursue a professional career in Australian Rules Football; and junior college transfer Youry White suffered a season-ending knee injury during preseason practice). But we've got to find ways to overcome it.
 
"On the flipside, we scored 90 points tonight. We had 84 points in a scrimmage the other night. We went to the free-throw line 28 times tonight. That's excellent improvement over last year's team, and I think you'll see that happen a lot. We're got some problems to address, but we have plenty of positives going too. We're ready for the regular season; let's get it on."
 
ULM opens the 2018-19 regular season at Jackson State on Tuesday, Nov. 6 at 7 p.m.